Garage cleaning with Finland
by JiiBee
Summary: America is not the only one with a messy storage room full of memories. -Genre fail- HIATUS
1. Prologue

_Hello, JiiBee here~ Long time, no write, huh? I think I'm not supposed to be writing now either, I have too many irons on the fire at the moment, mostly because of my own stupidity... This week was just so Hetalia-nostalgic for reason unknown to me, and I just got the urge to do something related to it. _

_This is actually a project of mine from about a year ago, but I never got around cleaning the text and publishing it. It will be ongoing with an irregular upload schedule, meaning that I'll upload a chapter when I get an inspiration to do one. The chapters will probably be differently lenghted, this quite short i.e., depends on the even on the hand in the current chapter. Some things just need more explaining than others. The next chapter is written, I'll upload it possibly after I'm done with this, or only later. We'll see._

_Feedback is always welcome, as are suggestions about an event that should be portrait (I'm really weak on Finnish history, guaranteed that I'm a Finn myself... OTL) and corrections about possible failures about some events I've already written (they are highly possible)._

_Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia (what a big surprise, it would be a canceled project because of my lazyness and short concentration span). _

_Warnings: Possible OOC:ness, even though I try to make the characters act as I think they would, as countries and as oc's of Himaruya-sensei._

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><p>"Okay, here we go!"<p>

A shiver of light filtered through the dusty air as the big and heavy looking door was opened from the outside. The room was dark, and for a while a silhouette of a man and a small dog was seen on the doorway, before the person infiltrating this dark place reached to click on the lights. After a few flickers the electric lights illuminated the room, showing a large space full of boxes and old furniture and whatnot.

"Wow", the man on the doorway said, "there are even more stuff in here than I remembered!" The small dog next to him let out a yap and went on before her owner to sniff the place. Every smell was a familiar one, even if some of them felt like the last time she got a sniff of them was so long ago.

"Hanatamago! Watch out, I don't want you to get lost in there!" The concerned man shouted before the small white fluffball. The said fluffball gave a glance towards her owner, huffed and kept on with her investigation. Seriously, who did he think he is? She could take care of herself perfectly well! There was no way she could get lost in this place, with her snout to guide her way through all of… these… fascinating… smells…

Tino sighed softly as he watched her precious dog to wander away despite his concerned words. Soon the last white shiver of the pet was gone amidst the mess that populated the room, and he turned his light lavender eyes to take a look of it himself. There sure was a large amount of stuff, that could not be denied.

It was a nice warm day of April in Finland, and time for the said countries annual spring cleaning. This time though, he had decided to give a shot of cleaning his garage, too, which was more like a warehouse than a garage nowadays, there was no way he was ever going to fit a car in this place, a scooter perhaps, if he squeezed a bit. He had been putting of its cleaning for way too long, with every time him ending up getting flashbacks of his past, some pleasant, some… not so.

This time, he had sworn, this time I'm doing this, or at least getting done some more than last time. He really wanted a place to shelter his car in, it's fine the way it was in the drive way now but in case he happened to get many guests at the same time (who all always came by their own cars… no wonder the climate was warming) and he needed more room for all of their vehicles, the garage would a convenient space for at least a few cars.

He inhaled slowly and let let out a last sigh before walking in from the doorway, and started to move the closest boxes in front of the mess.

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><p><strong>R&amp;R, if you please~ Stay tuned for more!<strong>


	2. Leather backpack

_So, here's the actual first chapter of this story. I should be sleeping, but I'm just so hyped I'll give you this much already. The next chap is written, I just need to clean write it and fix the historical errors in it, but it'll take more than a week, I'll be away for a week and my school starts almost immediatly after it, also the other works I need to do. Geez, when did I get a life? O_o _

_I won't even try that hard to keep the events in chronological order, as I'm pretty sure I'm gonna forget somethign anyway._

_Also, historical refs and language words will go down, after the actual chapter._

_Disc: I still do not own Hetalia._

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><p>This was starting pretty well. After about fifteen minutes he had made some space in the large room. Tino was growing even more positive that this plan was going to work, that if he just remembered not to rummage the stuff inside the boxes too deeply, he could keep on working without unnecessary emotional flashbacks.<p>

Next part would be the hardest, though. He had to go through the boxes and decide, what he would keep and what should be thrown away. It was always difficult to him, not just because of the memories, but he just didn't like throwing stuff away. Who knew, maybe it would become useful later? Here were things, though, that he doubted would last another winter without breaking or becoming otherwise useless.

Tino took a deep breath and opened the large box he had crouched in front of. Some misc stuff, accessories like shoes, bags, belts. The leather boots on top – they looked nice, would be fine if needed for a historic theme event or something, he thought, and put them next to him to keep them. That belt, the stone lock looked nice, but the belt itself was too worn already. He put him next to the boots, he would have to get a knife to remove the lock for a later use, otherwise the belt would be thrown away. The leather backpack... Hold on, what's this?

Tino looked at the backpack on his hands, a strange feeling consumed him. Suddenly he realized. These were all things he had worn that day – the day he had to leave Su-san behind. The day he would become one of Russia.

_(September, 1809)_

It was starting to snow. A bit earlier, than usual. First very small, but growing larger, the flakes floated through the clear air, landing softly on the land, damped by the autumn rains, slowly but surely covering the signs of the battle around the three men.

A young, blond boy looked firmly in the eyes of older, taller man, who was looking back through his classes, without a trace of emotion showing on his face. To tell the truth, the older nation was aching to shout everything he felt to the short man before him, pleading the third to ask anything else, any other thing, than this. But it would be useless. They all knew it. So he kept on his mask, knowing he would regret it, but also knowing he had no choice.

"Well then", after the long silence the youngest of the three spoke, making the emotionless mask of the man in front of him crack ever so slightly.

"It's time for us to go", the boy tried to make his friendly trademark smile on his face, but failing as it looked faked, what it was. After a while of hesitation, the boy sticked out his hand for the man in dark blue uniform.

"Thank you, for everything... Berwald", the pause before his name and the fact the younger man used his human name instead of the usual "Su-san" made the whole situation to crash into the older Nordic nation's mind. Finland was actually leaving him. For good. And because of his own mistake of underestimating Russia. For a while Sweden just stood there, looking down on the blond boy and his hand which was waiting for him to shake it, finally granting it's wish and grabbing the small hand into his.

"G'dbye, Tino", he said with his low voice, not even trying to fake a smile on his face as his former 'wife' did. A flash of thought of not letting go of the hand as he gently shook it and pulling the boy into a large hug crossed his mind, but soon faded as he released the grip nevertheless. Pale violet eyes met his blue ones for a split second before Tino turned around and walked towards the other tall man, who had been smiling all the time and now waved cheerily to Sweden, who was left behind as the Russian started to lead his new underling towards his own country. Berwald didn't even notice the man as tall as him as his eyes were occupied with the Finns retreating back. He was carrying a leather backpack, from which peaked a small white dog, looking back at Sweden and whining quietly, the small voice easily heard through the clear air. But her owner never turned to look back as he walked after Russia, and soon the cold became unbearable for the tiny pet and she dug back into the warmth of the backpack, leaving her echoing voice to accompany Berwald, who suddenly felt unusually lonely.

Tino didn't know what he was supposed to do in that situation. He had always been under Sweden, who had taught him pretty much everything since the ancient times. He didn't know what to except from his new owner. Even though Berwald had been strict and all but forced him to learn his way of doing things, his language and his religion, Tino had had it pretty easy, at least when compared to other nations. He didn't have to go through a bloody reformation as some countries in the middle-Europe. And after all these years Finland had grown accustomed to his present way of doing things.

As the two men kept going in silence Ivan glanced the younger one behind him, who was currently looking blankly before him, visibly lost in his thoughts. The large man frowned slightly - he wasn't sure what he would do with his new prize of victory. Sure, he had been the one to attack in Finland in the first place, but he had merely wanted Sweden to join him in the embargo of England. It hadn't really been his plan to actually take the younger country. And the whole treat...

Russia turned to look onward again as he pondered about the deal with France, where the European country wished for Russia to help him with the embargo of the Great Britain. He had been reluctant for a long time to sign it, but it had ended the war between Imperial Russia and the French Empire. And now that his part of the deal was done and Sweden was forced to join the embargo, Francis promised aid against Ottomans. But still...

The snow was the only voice as they kept on going, both now deep in their own thoughts. Tino's mind had turned back to the goodbye session few moments ago. It wasn't like he hated the older man, they were actually pretty close, even though Finland had noticed that Berwald would've wanted even more. He remembered how he used to find the other scary and intimitading at first, which felt kinda ridiculous now. Even though Berwald was silent and hard to communicate with at times, he was warm and obviously cared for Tino. Maybe a little too much at times... A small smile tugged Finland's lips. He bet it would be kinda lonely at first without Su-san making sure he wasn't too cold, or his people learned Swedish properly.

Young blond's train of thoughts were suddenly stopped as he almost smashed into the large back in front of him - Ivan had stopped without a slightest warning, still facing forward. Tino looked at the back of his head confused, feeling a little nervous. Someone would've found it awkward to look up on someone, especially with the high difference Tino and Ivan had, but Finland had grown used it, too, as living with Sweden. A small thought of realization that Berwald and Ivan were the same height crossed his mind as he waited the other to say something.

"You didn't have much freedom when you were under Sweden, da?" Even though he was waiting for something to be said, Tino still flinched as he heard the other one speak. It was more like a statement than a question, and for a while Finland wondered if Russia really wanted an answer. When the silence was about to fall again, he decided it would not be better to let Ivan wait.

"Y-yes", he hurried to answer, and flinched again a little as the larger man turned around to face him. They were pretty close, and Tino had to keep his head tilted back to see the taller mans face. Violet eyes matching his own looked down on him, a gentle smile spread on the Russki's face. The patly curious, pondering face the elder looked at him with made Tino even more confused.

"You can have that now, if you wish", Ivan continued after a while, his smile spreading a little as the confusion Tino felt was now visible.

"Täh?" Russia chuckled softly at the dumbfounded expression on the boy's face, making him feel all the more like he had missed something important.

"I am offering you autonomy", Ivan left a small pause, giving Tino some time to adjust the information, before going on, "You can still use Swedish as the formal language and develop Finnish, you don't have to learn Russia or move to my house. But."

The new pause made Tino swallow a little. It was starting to sound like it was too good to be true.

"But", Ivan continued again, "you have to swear your loyalty to me, and let me supervise the most important decisions your country makes. Otherwise you are free to live on your own."

Silence fell yet again, the snow silencing every possible sound from the forest around them, as Tino's look fell from the higher mans face and turned into distance as he let the words sink in.

"But... why?" He regretted those words immediately, he had the chance of a lifetime, he should just take it and be happy, but he couldn't help but wonder. He knew the other Baltics, who were under Russia never had a chance like this, and it felt weird. Why did Ivan offer him something like this?

Russia's smile spread even more as he shrugged lightly.

"I have my hands full with the other countries I supervise, I don't really have a need to a new underling", he answered, and offered his hand to the younger man.

"Do we have a deal?" Tino blinked a few times, but soon took the hand.

"So, you can choose a place to stay, I will drop by as soon as you have settled. Till then, do swidánia!"

Ivan released his hand and took a few steps away, waving at the younger man who stayed behind, then turning away and starting towards his own homeland. Tino looked a while after him, still puzzled, but very excited. He could start his own life now. On his own.

"Thank you! Thank you very much!" He yelled after the departing man, who merely waved his hand again, not looking back, soon disappearing between the woods.

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><p><em>AN:_

_History notes (more from Wikipedia, I'm not a good explainer):_

_September, 1809: 17.9.1809 When the Finnish War ended and Finland was added as part of Russia._

_Deal with France: Napoleon couldn't defeit the Great Britain's Royal Navy, so he made a plan to close it in an continental system. He gathered allies to help him in the plan, Russian Empire being one of them._

_Autonomy: Russia's tzar Alexander I granted it to Finland, making it the Grand Duchy of Finland._

_Translations:_

Täh?: _Whuh?_

**R&R, if you please~**


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